1.8.4-Columbina
Brick!Club 1.8.4 Authority reasserts its Rights The problem with Javert chapters is that it literally takes me the entire day to write my posts. But at least this one isn’t awkwardly personal! Ha ha ha ha sorry. The thing that gets me about this chapter is how personal this is for Javert. It’s almost like, if we want to get a bit Holmesy up in here, Valjean is the criminal. And yet the ‘why’ isn’t really spelt out to us - it doesn’t necessarily need to be, it’s not hard to work out why Javert would be so upset about Valjean, but still, what I wouldn’t give for more of a canon look into Javert’s mind during those five years. How much did he second-guess himself, did he have any regard for the good the mayor did, etc. I always headcanon that he must have been fairly tormented during his time at M. sur M., torn between duties to serve truth and justice by finding out if the mayor is really Valjean and to respect authority by serving the mayor and, maybe, just maybe, even though we have nothing in the text to support this, maybe he had an inkling of a duty to make sure the good that the mayor was doing kept being done - obviously not in terms of giving money to the poor, but the schools and hospitals he was opening, the jobs he was providing? Obviously there’s nothing in the text to support this at all, I just like seeing Javert torn in as many directions as possible, I guess. Five whole years of “Is he Valjean? What if he isn’t? What if he is?”, no wonder it’s personal, this bloke has (unintentionally) been putting Javert through five years of hell. (Not to mention how personally offended he would be by the idea of an ex-convict becoming mayor - look at how he blue screened at Fantine spitting on the mayor, and this is like that times a hundred.) He did not proceed according to his custom, he did not enter into the matter, he exhibited no warrant of arrest. In his eyes, Jean Valjean was a sort of mysterious combatant, who was not to be laid hands upon, a wrestler in the dark whom he had had in his grasp for the last five years, without being able to throw him. This arrest was not a beginning, but an end. One, he did not proceed according to custom, this was different, this was special. Two, “not to be laid hands upon” - fizzyginger’s already noted the difference here between Hapgood and FMA, FMA has “Jean Valjean was a sort of mysterious and intangible antagonist” which I like a lot more, just because I think “not to be laid hands upon” immediately followed by “he had had in his grasp” is a bit confusing, but either way, it shows that Valjean is no longer a person to Javert but a symbol of a terrible mirrorverse where convicts run the towns and violent prostitutes are coddled after they spit on their betters and peasants are just handed money whenever they need it, so basically a living nightmare for Javert. But the other interesting thing is that Javert has almost immediately gone from “satisfied” to downright furious. You would expect from what we saw the chapter before, to see a Javert more like the one in “Which explains how Javert got on the scent”, where he wants to drag out his satisfaction for as long as possible. And maybe that’s what we would have gotten if Valjean hadn’t reacted so calmly. Javert’s quietly entered, all full of his terrible gloating joy, and Valjean pretty much ignores him to keep being nice to Fantine and then is just like “Yeah, yeah, I know.” This is meant to be a moment of triumph for Javert! And Valjean is just not playing along at all and not even being affected by his grappling-hook glance which by the way, that paragraph? Damn, son. He is not at all showing the proper fear and respect that Javert is used to. He’s acting like he’s still the mayor, he addresses Javert without his title, he asks for a word in private as though they were equals, and then he tries to bribe (?? debatable? could be just bail?) Javert (bless you Valjean still thinking that if you throw enough money at a problem you can solve it). It’s hardly surprising Javert loses his temper (I’m not saying forgivable, just unsurprising). And then you’ve got the sickly prostitute, and I can imagine Javert kind of subconsciously blaming her for everything, who won’t shut up about her kid and keeps begging ~*~Monsieur le Maire~*~ to save her as though he still has any kind of authority! Javert’s stamping his feet and being sarcastic and threatening Valjean with thumbscrews and basically thisclose to throwing a good old temper tantrum. But before he can get there, Fantine dies (more on that in a moment) and this pushes Valjean over the edge. Javert’s retreating and trembling is also left delightfully ambiguous - is it Valjean’s brawn, is there something in his eyes which makes Javert realise he’s pushed this too far, is it to do with the symbol that Javert’s made him in to? Unlike musical!Valjean, I don’t think book!Valjean would effect his escape while Javert called the guards, I think he’s too caught up in his moment with Fantine. Interesting that Javert left them in the courtyard, though. Did he not expect Valjean to resist arrest? Or was he just worried that bringing soldiers in to the hospital might cause a commotion that would alert Valjean? OKAY I THINK I’M FINALLY DONE TALKING ABOUT JAVERT FOR TODAY. Two non-Javert things I want to talk about: “Jean Valjean—we shall henceforth not speak of him otherwise” - at least until he picks up his next identity. Although with the discussion we’ve been having about the narrator seeming to use the name that Valjean identifies with at that time, this is pretty significant. Even after he had confessed, last chapter he was still being referred to as Madeleine. I mean, I suppose that last chapter he was interacting with people who only knew him as Madeleine, so perhaps it was meant to reflect how he was being seen, rather than how he saw himself, but I reject that because I am too in love with this idea. And after all, our self-perception does change depending on the perception of others around us, and this is even more noticeable when you’re using different names. I mean, think of different nicknames you have with different groups, including your online usernames. Either way, Javert has entered the room and that’s it, that’s the end of Madeleine as an identity. He’s as dead as Fantine is about to be. And, speaking of Fantine’s death, it’s quite ugly, or at least awkward. She doesn’t get the beautiful and peaceful departure that so many sufferers of Symbolic Illnesses get. Maybe. I just reread it and it didn’t seem as bad - I imagined as having been kind of sitting up so that when she fell back and her head struck the headboard, her head was pressed against her neck in that way that gives you a double chin if you have any fat on your body which Fantine probably doesn’t but it’s still an awkward position, and then with her gaping mouth and staring eyes, arms stretched out and grasping at nothing - it’s awkward and ugly and creepy. Also, I might just be an idiot, but I feel like for Fantine to connect “fetch the child” to “the child isn’t here” she must be relatively in control of her faculties? If it was me on a good day, I think I’d still be like “fetch the child? What do you mean fetch the child, she’s right here, I just heard her outside, why would you need three days, she’s just outside my window, is there some other unhappy woman with a child?”